For Sen. Rick Jones, once was enough when it came to taking a shock from a Taser.

“No I’m not going to demonstrate it again, but you can go to YouTube and … you can still see me being Tasered in front of the committee,” he said.

Jones, R-Grand Ledge, and Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, testified today before the House judiciary committee on legislation that would allow citizens to possess and use electro-muscular disruption devices, more commonly known as Taser guns, with a concealed pistol license (CPL) and training.

Michigan law permits Taser use only by certain law enforcement and corrections officers. Forty-four states allow civilians to carry the electroshock guns.

In 2008 Jones volunteered to be shot with a Taser to demonstrate the effects, an incident that still prompted chuckles among his peers more than three years later.

Senate bills 29, 30 and 93 passed the Senate in October with votes of 35 to 3. The House judiciary committee took testimony today but did not vote to send it to the floor.

“There’s no reason law abiding citizens who have a CPL and proper training shouldn’t have access to this non-lethal alternative for protecting themselves and their loved ones,” Hansen said.

Hansen referred to studies that show Tasers have a low injury rate and are relatively safe.

Sen. Morris Hood, D-Detroit, was among three senators who voted no on the legislation.
“The concern is … that people make sure that they know this is potentially a lethal item that could actually kill someone,” he said.

Since September 2001, at least 500 people have died in the United States after being shocked with a Taser either during an arrest or while in jail, according to an Amnesty International report released Wednesday. It reported that 13 of the deaths occurred in Michigan.

“Of the hundreds who have died following police use of Tasers in the USA, dozens and possibly scores of deaths can be traced to unnecessary force being used,” Susan Lee, Americas Programme Director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

Pending legislation in Michigan would employ similar restrictions for civilian possession and use of Tasers as the laws in place for pistols.

Ron Dehne of Michigan Taser Distributing testified before the committee that he does not know of any deaths that have resulted from civilian model Tasers.

Tasers use compressed nitrogen to shoot two small probes connected by wire that transmit electrical pulses to the target, temporarily debilitating muscle control.

Civilian-model guns use cartridges that extend 15 feet and are made for one-time use with a 30-second discharge, while police model cartridges can extend up to 35 feet and generally produce five-second bursts. The weapons emit confetti with serial numbers to identify the owner.